1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a tire testing machine for testing tires.
2. Description of the Related Art
When tires mounted on vehicles or the like are nonuniform in elasticity, size, or shape in the circumferential direction thereof, the above nonuniform part might cause vibration in rotation at high speed, thus decreasing traveling performance. For this reason, tires undergo performance tests by being examined for circumferential uniformity by means of a tire testing machine after vulcanizing and molding step.
The tires after undergoing various performance tests by the tire testing machine are subjected to marking by a marking device. The marking device performs marking by pushing a heated marking pin against a thermal transfer tape, and pressing the tape against the tire to print a desired mark on the tire by the thermal transfer.
For example, in a marking device disclosed in JP 2000-329658 A, two markings are applied to a tire by arranging two tapes adjacent to each other in a substantially circumferential direction (tangential direction) of the tire, and assigning different marking pins to the respective two tapes. The marking device can print in different colors by using the two different colored tapes. Further, JP 2006-95738 A discloses a marking device including two tapes arranged in parallel in a radial direction of a tire. This marking device can mark the same type of tire in the same position while switching between the tapes for use without adjusting the position of the tire in the circumferential direction.
In these tire testing machines, various performance tests are performed on tires according to the contents of the respective tests previously stored in a database. Based on the result of the tests by the tire testing machine, the marking device is designed to print a mark (perform marking) in a predetermined mark position of the tire (for example, the side surface of the tire) according to a marking setting condition previously stored in the database.
Conventionally, however, the contents of the tests performed by the tire testing machine, and the marking setting condition for the marking device are previously determined. Thus, the test cannot be performed by the tire testing machine according the contents other than the determined content of the test, or the marking device cannot perform marking under any marking setting conditions other than the determined marking setting condition. For example, even when the contents of the test by the tire testing machine are not changed but only the marking setting condition for the marking device is intended to be changed, the entire information stored in the database needs to be rewritten, which takes a lot of time. For this reason, the user using the tire testing machine has difficulty in freely setting the marking setting condition. Thus, the tire testing machine has a problem of lacking general versatility.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a tire testing machine with improved general versatility that enables the user using the tire testing machine to freely set the marking setting condition for the marking device of the tire testing machine for testing the tire.